Effective Mainstreaming of Agricultural Emissions into Climate Action Agenda: The Case of Institutions and Smallholder Dairy Production Systems, Western Kenya

Abstract

Small-scale farming production systems are integral drivers of global sustainability challenges and the climate crisis as well as a solution space for the transition to climate compatible development. However, mainstreaming agricultural emissions into a climate action agenda through integrative approaches, such as Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA), largely reinforces adaptation–mitigation dualism and pays inadequate attention to institutions’ linkage on the generation of externalities, such as Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. This may undermine the effectiveness of local–global climate risk management initiatives. Literature data and a survey of small-scale farmers’ dairy feeding strategies were used in the simulation of GHG emissions. The effect of price risks on ecoefficiencies or the amount of GHG emissions per unit of produced milk is framed as a proxy for institutional feedbacks on GHG emissions and effect at scale. This case study on small-scale dairy farmers in western Kenya illustrates the effect of local-level and sectoral-level institutional constraints, such as market risks on decision making, on GHG emissions and the effectiveness of climate action. The findings suggest that price risks are significant in incentivising the adoption of CSA technologies. Since institutional interactions influence the choice of individual farmer management actions in adaptation planning, they significantly contribute to GHG spillover at scale. This can be visualised in terms of the nexus between low or non-existent dairy feeding strategies, low herd productivity, and net higher methane emissions per unit of produced milk in a dairy value chain. The use of the Sustainable Food Value Chain (SFVC) analytical lens could mediate the identification of binding constraints, foster organisational and policy coherence, as well as broker the effective mainstreaming of agricultural emissions into local–global climate change risk management initiatives. Market risks thus provide a systematic and holistic lens for assessing alternative carbon transitions, climate financing, adaptation–mitigation dualism, and the related risk of maladaptation, all of which are integral in the planning and implementation of effective climate action initiatives.